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eSafety

The government has recently launched a brand new website to support parents.

In schools there are lots of opportunities to learn about safeguarding and, particularly the online aspect. Parents on the other hand need access to support too. It is not always easy to encourage parents to meetings about esafety, but it is crucial they understand the risks.

The government has recently launched a brand new website to support parents.

The website has being developed with ParentZone and CEOP, the police command responsible for child exploitation and online protection.

THREE TOP TIPS FOR NOVEMBER

Three top tips for building your child’s online resilience

technical literacy - knowing your way around technologies and having technical skills;

media literacy - understanding different platforms and being able to judge the quality and reliability of online sources;

social literacy - understanding online etiquette and the way things are done online.

Here are our tips for helping your child to regulate their own use and take the more positive apporach to the internet that seems to lead to greater safety:

Rather than making inflexible rules, have a conversation. It can be tempting to lay down hard and fast rules - to order your kids not to visit certain websites or to switch all screens by dinner time. But even a child who has no access to a computer at home may be able to surf the web on their phone, a friend’s tablet or laptop or even at school, and research shows that children who have very restrictive parents are generally less resilient than their peers. If you’d rather your child didn't use certain websites, the best approach is to explain why. Calmly and rationally discussing the risks of some online activities can help your children decide for themselves that uploading that picture or clicking on that link isn’t worth the risk.

Create a supportive environment for exploration and learning. We know parental support can make a big difference in offline success, but it’s now seeming just as crucial to online resilience. Make it clear you support your child seeking out new opportunities. Encourage them to research topics that interest them, use the internet for homework and connect positively with friends and family via social media.

Don’t be too hands-off. Giving your children freedom to explore online without excessive restrictions and monitoring is a good thing, but there’s no need to jump to the other extreme. Research shows that parental interest and involvement is positively correlated with online resilience, so don’t stay completely removed from your child’s online life. Ask them to show you their favourite websites, videos and apps, and talk to them about how they interact online. Take a real interest in what they're doing. It is children who feel unconditionally supported (but who have clear boundaries) who feel most secure and tend to be safer.